Everette R. H. Thompson-François

Everette R.H. Thompson-François is a multi-faceted program and campaign director with more
than 20 years of non-profit and cross-movement leadership experience. He is a Southerner by
birth and choice and has dedicated his career to strengthening people and organizational
infrastructure. His life’s work started during his time abolishing the death penalty in the South as
the Regional Director of Amnesty International USA’s Southern Regional Office, based in
Atlanta, GA. It covered a region comprised of eleven states in the Southeastern U.S, also known
as the “death belt.” As Regional Director, Everette provided the overall strategic vision to meet
AIUSA’s campaign goals in the South, traveled extensively throughout the South building
strategic partnerships and coalitions, and served as the lead spokesperson for AIUSA South.
Everette leads from a place of joy and reverence of human dignity and creates places where we
all belong. Everette serves as the Purveyor of Joy and Movement Infrastructure Architect at
Grits and Greens, LLC. Grits and Greens is a consulting firm that offers human resources,
operations infrastructure, and coaching support with a throughline focused on love, rigor, and
mutual connection. Everette is a trainer with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity
(B.O.L.D.), a national training intermediary focused on transforming the practice of Black
organizers in the US. In addition to secular organizing, Everette has worked in the national
settings of faith-based institutions, including but not limited to serving as the Political Education
and Spiritual Sustenance Specialist at the Unitarian Universalist Association and Social Justice
Movement Chaplain. Notably, Everette was the National Justice and Equity Coordinator for
350.org, an international climate change organization, where he supported the staff to integrate
intentional justice and equity frameworks within the fabric of all operations, and the National
Field Director for the Rights Working Group, a national coalition of over 300 community-based
groups and policy organizations dedicated to ending racial and bias profiling across the country.

Everette holds a B.A. in English and B.S. in Public Administration from North Carolina Central
University (Durham, NC) and an M.A. in Nonprofit Leadership and Development from the
University of Delaware (Newark, DE). He is currently an MDiv candidate at Eden Theological
Seminary. His greatest joy is creating memorable moments with his sun/son Elijah.